Flora & Fauna: The Start

How and Why?

I often get asked the question 'How did I start Flora & Fauna and Why'.

I came up with the concept of F&F in July 2014 and it was a meeting of many things all at once. I'd worked in the corporate world for 16 years and worked for retailers such as Coles, Woolies, John Lewis in the UK (still one of my favourite retailers), Virgin Retail (pre-music downloads being a thing) and in retail consultancy and private equity. I'd always had an itch to do my own thing and be my own boss. Over the years I had mulled over many ideas and at one point in 2012 thought I could sell running gear on ebay - it was very apparent I couldn't do that and should just stick to running.

Just prior to launching F&F I was pretty advanced in starting a Juice Cleanse business. I personally love juice cleanses and decided I could run a business doing it. As I dug deeper into the business plan I realised that it wasn't a very scalable business and I was also terrible at making juice - that was the clincher! I can remember saying to my husband that actually we should stop the juice idea - we'd designed the logo, packaging and worked out the numbers but it wasn't the right idea for us. The juice cleanse was a really important part of F&F's journey - what I was really good at was retail and with the juice business I was venturing too far out of what I was good at ( I can't stress how bad I was at making juice).

I realised I needed to stick with what I knew and loved which was retail and I needed to combine my passion for sustainable retail, animal welfare and a great customer experience. It just so happens at the same time I was shopping for a lipstick in a health and beauty store and it was a terrible experience - the ingredients were confusing and I had no idea what products had been tested on animals, so I decided to create a store where everything was cruelty-free and we only stocked products with good ingredients. 

Hello Flora & Fauna!